Verijet sorts through lawsuits, seeks new financing

As Verijet faces a default judgment in a lawsuit from jet card broker and platform Jettly, an appeals court overturned a different default judgment against it. At the same time, the Cirrus Vision Jet operator says it is now close to closing on financing, albeit with a new partner.

The Third District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida in late June overturned a $2.9 million judgment against the top 15 charter/fractional operator.

That judgment from last November came after the court initially found Verijet failed to respond to and retain new counsel in a lawsuit by Vision Leasing 241, LLC.

It is one of several lawsuits against the Cirrus SF50 operator.

However, Verijet did retain new lawyers within weeks of the ruling.

The 2020-start-up laid the failure to respond at the door of Michael Marcotte, who served briefly as CEO before founder Richard Kane returned to the corner office.

“Verijet claimed that it was unaware of the withdrawal of its counsel due to disruptions caused by the abrupt resignation of its former CEO, Michael Marcotte, who was the only one at the company corresponding with its counsel, had been receiving case documents solely through his personal email, and was receiving correspondence at a now-closed branch office without arranging to have the mail forwarded,” according to the appeals court ruling.

Counsel for Vision Leasing 241 didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Verijet is also suing former Board Member Mark Kahan.

Kahan is a principal with Vision Leasing 241, according to Kane.

It alleges that Kahan was trying to gain control of Verijet by forcing it into bankruptcy.

Separately, an Orlando court ruled in favor of Jettly after Verijet did not appear for a May 30th court date.

The jet card broker and direct-to-consumer charter platform said Verijet had failed to refund $16,000 payments after canceling customer flights.

Kane tells Private Jet Card Comparisons he was unaware of the lawsuits and would contact Jettly.

However, as of this morning, Jettly CEO Justin Crabbe says, “They kept indicating they would pay for months, but never did, all while keeping their planes flying. We kept getting led on endlessly by their team. Richard would never reply to an email or phone call.”

Fleet update

Kane says three of its six SF50s are flying, with the other three waiting for scheduled maintenance slots.

The single-engine jets continue to operate nationally as a floating fleet.

Verijet also moved into a new facility at Sanford Airport in Orlando (pictured).

According to Kane, Verijet also has a facility near Las Vegas that supports western operations.

After launching in Florida, Verijet quickly expanded nationwide and to Canada before running into headwinds.

At its peak, Verijet was operating around 20 of the VLJs.

Last year, Cirrus Aircraft delivered 96 SF50s, tops among private jet types.

On its website, the operator continues to market prepaid jet cards starting at 25 hours.

Verijet financing

In terms of funding, Kane says the company is now close to securing new financing.

“We have an exciting joint venture that provides the foundation for growing the company, and we will be able to talk about it in a couple of weeks,” Kane says.

At the same time, he says Solaino, which was supposed to provide $85 million, is no longer involved.

“We gave them one last opportunity to perform, and they defaulted,” Kane says.

A Solaino representative did not respond with a comment.

For Verijet, it is hoped that the third time will be the charm for closing on new investors.

It announced a SPAC IPO early last year, which ended when the special purpose company disbanded.